ill Siamese fighter

Question
Hi Karen,
I have a male Siamese fighter who has not looked well over the past week.  
He is always resting near the top of the tank on top of a pipe coming out of
the filter, the only time he moves is to get air at the top although when he
does swim his movement is fine.  On other occasions I will see him resting at
the bottom of the tank on the gravel, like I said up to a week ago he was
fine. I have done a 15% water change but still no better. My tank is 180 litres
and also houses some neon tetras, silver mollys, guppies and a couple of
catfish. All the rest of my fish seem fine although I have recently treated them
for white spot as noticed a few white patches on some of my neons.  Still not
sure if this is white spot though and haven't seen any form of marks on the
fighter who by the way I have had for just over a year now.

He also doesn't seem to be eating much, I have always feed my fish on dried
flake food, once to twice a week I will give them bloodworm also.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Rich

Any help would be great

Answer
Hi Richard,
Try to check your ammonia and nitrite levels. With the white spot treatment, its possible the beneficial bacteria could be severely depleted by being killed from the meds and ammonia on the rise. You can easily test your water at home or bring a sample to your petstore (just make sure you get the exact readings).

Be wary of just treating for 'white patches'. It may in fact not be ick. Ick gives the appearance as if the fish had been sprinkled with salt. White patches could indicate fungus (dangerous but treatable) or early neon tetra disease (untreatable). So be sure to differentiate from those illnesses.

Your betta sounds stressed definitely. Test the water if possible and change it if in doubt. Around a 50% water change can often bring listless fish around, if not, continue changing the water daily. If this still doesn't help, it may be a illness or the damage is too far gone.

I hope this helps!!!!
Karen~